Rapid Recap- Bulls save best for last to win Birmingham Bowl dramatically

After a back-and-forth game at Legion Field on Saturday, USF pulled through with a dramatic 38-34 win over Texas Tech in the Birmingham Bowl.

The Bulls struggled to find their offensive rhythm, only managing 130 yards in the first half. However, things got going in the second half when, QB Quinton Flowers connected with Darnell Salomon for a 17-yard touchdown pass to cap off a 75-yard scoring drive.

It marks the Bulls’ 10th win in Flowers’ last game in green and gold.

Flowers finished the game completing 17 of 24 passes for 311 yards and four touchdowns through the air. His fourth touchdown pass lifted USF to victory over the Red Raiders. Flowers found slot receiver Tyre McCants down the right sideline with this 26-yard touchdown with just 16 seconds remaining.

Olivia is a multi-faceted sports reporter based in Tampa Bay where she has covered events from the College Football National Championship to the Stanley Cup Final. A native Floridian, she grew up rooting for Tampa’s sports teams, and graduated from East Lake High in Tarpon Springs. Olivia continued her education at the University of Florida where she received her broadcast journalism degree.

The Bearcats won again on Saturday 42-0 over Navy and are now 8 and 1. They are up next for the Bulls.. Then, Temple, who gave UCF all they can handle Thursday night in Orlando will host the Bulls and they have the lone win over the Bearcats at the moment. Plus, quarterback Anthony Russo appears to be the real deal throwing and running. That’s bad news.

And UCF, is well, UCF, and the fact that the Bulls have been suspect to this point stopping teams, is not encouraging for that rivalry game.

The narrow comeback wins against awful teams like Illinois, and Tulsa are coupled with struggling to put away bad teams like East Carolina and UConn are a memory. Yes it helped the Bulls remain unbeaten, but it masked that they were vulnerable, especially on D.

Strong is 17-3 in his second season at USF. All he needs is the perfect entree back to Power Five after being fired at Texas. Strong would be that calming influence. A master recruiter, Strong could activate D.C.-area talent that has long avoided Maryland. If I’m Evans, Strong is one of my first calls.

Strong obviously was on a fast track to the big time of college coaching after leading the Louisville Cardinals to a great season and upset of the Gators in the Sugar Bowl in 2012.

Strong eventually took the job at the University of Texas, but was fired in 2016 after three sub-par seasons in Austin going 16-21.

One critical component is that USF is unable to pay Strong what he has been making previously at the University of Texas and would potentially make at a program like Maryland enticing. Strong’s contract has been structured the last couple of years so the Texas was paying more than 90% of it in the form of the over $8 million dollars that they still owed him.

That goes away after this year and USF would be on the hook for his full salary starting in 2019, and it’s not likely that the Bulls can start paying Strong even in a new contract $3 – 4 million per year.

One more factor is the daunting end to the Bulls schedule. That includes a road game at Temple, a home game with Cincinnati and then, the critical matchup hosting UCF in the regular season finale.

If Strong is not successful in most of those games, then, some of the luster will come off of his coaching star.

Still, it is interesting that the national media is bringing up his name for the Maryland opening.

Meanwhile, the Bulls will try to get back on the winning track when they host Tulane on Saturday night.

He then brought Shawn Watson as his offensive coordinator from Louisville to Austin. He paid very dearly for that mistake.

Two years later, Strong was dragged through a humiliating public spectacle of begging Sterlin Gilbert of Tulsa to become his offensive coordinator. Gilbert did well at the 40 Acres, but not well enough — not with a Longhorn defense which remained inconsistent. Gilbert did establish a greater foothold in the college football industry — but not at Texas. He gained a life raft to Tampa as South Florida’s — and Strong’s — offensive coordinator when Charlie’s Texas career fell apart

Applewhite lived the dream of being a Texas Longhorn quarterback, but he permanently ruined his chances of ever being Texas coach. Charlie Strong had his dream job as Texas coach, but that dream turned into a nightmare.

Two coaches both carry their share of Texas-sized scars. Two men toiling in the AAC certainly covet a chance at a bigger job, no matter what they might say or hide in public.

They now meet in a game which is important enough as it is in the standings.. but probably carries more personal significance than the two met will let on.

We naturally focus on USF, given our mandate to examine Florida-based football programs, but it is worth spending a little time on Houston’s identity in 2018. The Cougars are not an exact replica of USF, but they have drawn enough comparisons to the Bulls to the point that they can fairly be viewed as a team with a similar identity

No, Houston has not allowed most of its games to come down to the fourth quarter. That’s South Florida’s music so far this season, as you know. Houston has been able to take care of its wins before the final several minutes, but it remains that the Cougars have played sleepy and sloppy first halves to create second-half headaches. This happened most centrally at home against Tulsa, which gained a nine-point lead midway through the second half before Houston blitzed the Golden Hurricane on a massive scoring run which barely took any time. Houston’s tendency to snooze through first halves, especially on defense, was also in evidence against Rice and Navy.

These are not the same exact teams, but they have done enough to merit some comparisons, many of them unflattering. This leads us to another Applewhite-Strong intersection: Pundits and analysts can reasonably claim that both men have not coached their teams as well as their records — and their places in the AAC standings — might indicate.

That last point underscores the climate of dissatisfaction which envelops this game. Even though Houston is the clear favorite in its division, and even though South Florida is unbeaten, these two teams are widely doubted… and the doubts come from an entirely legitimate place. Applewhite and Strong both want to make their mark. After unceremonious exits from the University of Texas — a place synonymous with college football royalty — two head coaches with a desire to make it big in their careers face a game which, if lost, will validate every criticism lobbed toward them this season.

The winner won’t gain leverage so much as the loser will cede an enormous amount of standing in the coaching industry. If either man wants to make the jump to a bigger job — probably not this year, but more reasonably in 2019 or 2020 — winning this game becomes extremely important if only because neither man can afford to lose ground This isn’t a reputation-maker; it’s a possible reputation-breaker for the loser.

Major Applewhite. Charlie Strong. Two Texas exes must travel a long road — with no quick fixes — to build their coaching reputations to the point where they can dream bigger dreams in their careers. The men who have closed some doors to their careers are still searching for new portals to walk through.

They need to win the Houston-USF game this Saturday if they are to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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